Prevention Of Attack On Pearl Harbor example essay topic

On September 24, 1941, the "bomb plot" message in J-19 code from Japan Naval Intelligence to Japan's consul general in Honolulu was decoded. This message requested the exact locations of ships. There was no reason to know the exact location of ships in the harbor, unless to attack them. This message could not have been interpreted any other way but as a planned attack on Pearl Harbor.

Chief of War Plans Turner and Chief of Naval Operations Stark repeatedly kept this message and warnings based on it prepared by Safford and others from being passed to Hawaii. The Chief of Naval Intelligence, Captain Kirk, was replaced by Roosevelt because he insisted on warning Hawaii. The reason was lack of information and warnings that lead Hawaii commanders to be off guard. At no time did the Japanese ever ask for a similar bomb plot for any other American military installation.

Why the Roosevelt administration allowed flagrant Japanese spying on Pearl Harbor has never been explained, but they blocked two Congressional investigations in the fall of 1941 to allow it to continue. The bomb plots were addressed to "Chief of 3rd Bureau, Naval General Staff", marked Secret Intelligence message, and given special serial numbers, so their significance couldn't be missed. On November 22, 1941, the Americans intercepted circular no. 812 stating "in short, if everything can be finished, we have decided to wait until that date (now moved to November 29). This time we mean it, that the deadline absolutely cannot be changed. After that, things are automatically going to happen". (Investigation p 32) Therefore, it is obvious to us now that the Japanese were no longer interested in trying to work out a peaceful settlement with the United States, if the U.S. did not accede to the Japanese demands, they would attack the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in hopes of knocking the U.S. out of the Pacific war before it ever started.

The Japanese decided to continue with their campaigns in Asia in order to gain the mineral wealth they needed. The reason the Japanese decided to attack the United States was a fear that in absence of any negotiation, the U.S. might decide to get involved in the Pacific struggle, and although a weaker force compared to the Japanese, had the ability to greatly hamper Japanese advances. An attack on the Pacific fleet, it was believed, would cripple the U.S. long enough to allow the Japanese to consolidate their gains in the Pacific. Combined with the Nazi conquest of Europe, the United States would then face an insurmountable task of ousting the Japanese and Germans at the same time. There is no doubt that if intelligence organization would exist before Japanese attack, this massive and brutal massacre would be prevented. Now it is possible to see that after creation of CIA there was a huge progress in obtaining useful information for our government during the World War II.

If there would not be any intelligence, then our military would not succeed during the invasion in Normandy, and this would allow Germany to save more time and to draw the world into much longer war. There is no mistake in thinking that entering World War II was inevitable for the United States. However, is it unrealistic to think that the bombing of Pearl Harbor could have been prevented? Did President Franklin D. Roosevelt know that the bombing was going to occur? Could the loss of 2403 United States soldiers, 18 ships, including five battleships, and 188 planes been averted? Did an additional 1,178 soldiers have to be wounded?

Before entering World War II, Japan had many other problems to deal with. Japan is naturally isolated because of their location. It was not until 1853 when U.S. naval officer Matthew C. Perry arrived in Japan that the opening of trade with the West began. In addition to isolation Japan also has very few natural resources. Japan relies on other nations for raw materials, especially oil. Despite these difficulties, Japan began to build a successful empire with a solid industrial foundation and a good army and navy.

The military became highly involved in the government, and this began to get them into trouble. In the early 1930's, the Japanese Army had many small, isolated battles with the Chinese in Manchuria. The Japanese Army prevailed in the series of battles, and Manchuria became a part of the Japanese political system. In 1937, the conflicts began again with the Chinese in the area near Beijing's Marco Polo Bridge. These led to a full-scale war known as the second Sino-Japanese War.

This was one of the bloodiest wars in world history and continued until the final defeat of Japan in 1945. In 1939, World War II was beginning with a string of victories by German forces. Germany's success included defeats of Poland and France along with a seizure of England. Many of the European nations that Germany now controlled had control over important colonial empires such as the East Indies and Singapore in Southeast Asia. These Southeast Asian countries contained many of the natural resources that Japan so desperately needed. Now that these countries were worried about matters over in Europe, Japan felt that it should seize the opportunity to take over some of them.

At the same time in the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to halt the expansion of Germany and Japan, but many others in the government wanted to leave the situation alone. The United States began to supply materials to the countries at war with Germany and Japan, but it wanted to remain neutral to prevent an overseas war. Meanwhile, Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the Axis Alliance in September of 1940. Japan was becoming desperate for more natural resources. In July of 1941, Japan made the decision to secure access to the abundance of the much-needed resources in Southeast Asia. It was afraid that it could not defeat the larger and stronger Western powers.

It needed to build up its armies in order to stay in the war. It also had to worry, though. About the United States' reaction to their plans to seize Southeast Asia. It is amazing to see how much intelligence gathering have helped the United States in the World War II. From the moment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and from the creation of CIA, which would be held responsible for military intelligence gathering, there has been a great success achieved.

Thanks to American intelligence activities our country has obtained information on the nuclear bomb project that was under process of development by the Nazis. Many useful things intelligence has done since the time of its creation; however, I think that the most valuable would be the prevention of attack on Pearl Harbor, which showed what an unprotected our country could be without intelligence gathering. From 1953 to 1961 the CIA continued out foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, political action, and propaganda operations. During the Eisenhower administration, Secretary of State John Dulles used the Central Intelligence Agency, which was headed by his brother Allen Dulles, for covert interventions against governments that were too closely aligned with communism. The CIA moved beyond its original objective of intelligence gathering to active involvement in the internal affairs of foreign countries where such covert action suited the American ideals.